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Sonatrach to launch tender for oil, gas exploration blocks
Thursday, 01 May 2008
ImageAlgerian energy company Sonatrach will in the coming weeks launch a tender for bids for 15 oil and gas exploration blocks, the group's chief executive Mohamed Meziane said here Monday. "The tender offer will be launched in the coming weeks, before the beginning of May," Meziane told AFP on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum here.

A total of 69 companies had expressed an interest in the blocks in December, including a number of French companies, which Meziane declined to name.

"That shows that Algeria remains attractive" as an exploration site, he said.

Some experts have suggested that Algerian oil reserves are not as extensive as the country's official estimates.

The tender process could take until the end of the year, Meziane continued.

Meziane confirmed that the memorandum of understanding signed between Sonatrach and Russian gas giant Gazprom in August 2006 had expired without any concrete projects materialising.

Under the accord, Sonatrach and Gazprom, both major suppliers of gas to Europe, had envisaged cooperating in the exploration, extraction and transport of oil and gas, the development of gas infrastructure and the treatment and sale of gas in Russia, Algeria and other countries.

The deal stoked concern in Europe about security of supply and possible price fixing.
 
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